by Our Foreign Desk

NORTH and South Korea backed away from war yesterday after more than 40 hours of talks.

The two republics reached a compromise to defuse escalating border tension that has led to exchanges of artillery fire and increasing troop concentration along both sides of the border.

Pyongyang expressed “regret” that two South Korean soldiers were maimed earlier this month when they stepped on a landmine on their side of the demilitarised zone (DMZ).

The incident, which Seoul blamed on the North, prompted the latest round of sabre-rattling.

This fell short of South Korean President Park Geun Hye’s demand for an apology, but may allow her to claim some measure of vindication.

Ms Park expressed hope that the statement would help improve relations between the two states that are still formally at war since the armistice that ended the Korean conflict in 1953.

North Korea will also step down from the “quasi-state of war” it declared last week in response to the crisis.

The South will in turn halt loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts across the DMZ — a symbolic victory for Pyongyang.

In a promising sign of limited detente, the two states agreed to hold further talks soon in one of the two capitals.

Negotiations began on Saturday in the so-called peace village of Panmunjom, where the 1953 ceasefire was agreed.

The Koreas also struck an important humanitarian agreement by promising to begin talks in September to plan more emotional reunions of families separated by the Korean War.

The reunions could take place as early as October, considering the time needed to match relatives and agree on a venue, said an unnamed official from Seoul’s Unification Ministry.

More reunions will follow, but there were no immediate details.

During the talks at Panmunjom, the North Korean negotiators raised the issue of restarting joint tours to the North’s scenic Diamond Mountain resort, said the official from Seoul’s Unification Ministry.

Neither issues related to North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme nor joint military exercises between the US and South Korea, which Pyongyang condemns as a rehearsal for invasion, were discussed.